The Emporia Gazette

May 27, 2012

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Isn’t it great to live in Kansas, where it can be almost 80 degrees one day and in the 50’s the next? The grass is starting to green up, many new calves are here, and before long corn will be planted and cattle will be grazing the Flint Hills of Kansas.

I would invite cattle producers to attend the K-State Cattle Risk Management Workshop on Tuesday March 20. The workshop will be held at the Lyon County Extension Meeting Room, 618 Commercial St. (park in the back, come in from the back alley) starting with 9:30 registration and the workshop beginning at 10.

Workshop participants gain hands-on experience using Livestock Risk Protection Insurance, forward cash contracts, and Chicago Mercantile Exchange futures and put options for a livestock case farm. Participants have an opportunity to make realistic risk management decisions and see how those decisions affect the case farm’s bottom line. The workshops are targeted toward cattle (particularly cow-calf) producers, agricultural lenders, and other cattle industry stakeholders.

At the conclusion of the workshop, participants will have an improved understanding of how various price risk management tools can be used to manage risk in their operations. If you haven’t already registered, please call the Extension Office by noon on Monday so we can make meal arrangements.

It is also just about my favorite time of year – the time when pastures are burned in the Flint Hills. Lyon County residents need to have a burn permit and also make the proper notifications at the time of the controlled burn. A quick phone call notifying the appropriate agencies prior to a burn can save a lot of time and money if someone with a cell phone calls in a fire they think is a wildfire. Please contact your county law enforcement to determine the appropriate procedures for your county.

Why are the pastures burned, and is it really necessary? Take a look at some of the smaller unburned tracts in the area that have been taken over by cedar trees, an invasive species that is easily controlled by fire. And read on about the tallgrass prairie and how it developed.

Fire has always been a key ecological process in the tallgrass prairie. In pre-European settlement times, the prairie burned in a variable, but frequent regime (two to five fires per decade), says Walt Fick, range management specialist with K-State Research and Extension. Periodic fire is essential to the preservation and sustainability of these grasslands. Less than 4 percent of the original tallgrass prairie remains intact, and an overwhelming majority of it is located in the Flint Hills of Kansas.

The proper timing of burning tallgrass prairie has been debated by experts. But 40 years of research by K-State indicates that burning in mid April (early April in southern Kansas and late April in northern Kansas) will result in the best gains in stocker cattle. These increased gains are due to increased forage quality and/or increased forage intake of cattle grazing burned areas.

Cow-calf producers don’t get the gain advantage that stocker producers do from burning. However, they should still burn every two to three years to keep woody plants from encroaching on the prairie. Frequent fire increases the growth and abundance of native prairie grasses and prevents the establishment and spread of invasive woody plants. Burning timing is not as crucial for cow-calf producers as it is for stocker producers.

The temporary reduction in air quality is an environmental downside of extensive burning that has drawn the attention of both the Environmental Protection Agency and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. Both agencies became concerned in April 2003, when the air quality in Kansas City did not meet acceptable standards. Because of weather conditions in 2003, much of the Flint Hills burned during a three-day time span in mid April, resulting in smoke that hung in the atmosphere and drifted on air currents into Kansas City. The smoke caused a spike in air particulate matter. Each spring since 2003, when pastures are being burned, a significant increase in air particulate matter has been detected in the Kansas City area.

Knowing the environmental value of tallgrass prairie burning, EPA and KDHE officials sought the advice of K-State Research and Extension, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the Kansas Department of Agriculture. A committee was formed to study and recommend ways to manage smoke emission from burning and came up with the following recommendations to minimize the smoke particulate matter drifting into metropolitan areas.

Wind speed — Wind speeds of 5 to 15 miles per hour are best. As winds reach 20 miles per hour, the chances of controlling a fire in a good pasture fuel-load are slim.

Lack of wind speed — No wind means that a breeze will come up in a few minutes, but you do not know from which direction. A 5-mile-per-hour breeze is more dependable.

Relative humidity — Plays a big part in conducting a good controlled burn. Relative humidity of 40 to 70 percent is acceptable. Below 40 percent puts the area into a high fire danger situation and controlling fires can be difficult. Above 70 percent slows the burn because it hampers getting the fire to carry through the fuel, and smoke may be increased.

Air temperature — Should be 55 to 80 degrees. The cloud cover should be less than 70 percent for safe burning. Clouds will trap smoke and a minimum ceiling of 2,000 feet is required. Both conditions are necessary to get rid of the smoke. Picking a day when the smoke goes up high, indicating a good ceiling is important.

Targeting prescribed burns earlier in the burn window may improve plant community diversity and increase habitat favored by a more diverse wildlife population. Native wildlife of the prairies evolved with the grassland. Fire was a critical factor in wildlife habitat development. Properly used, prescribed burning can increase desirable warm season grasses and native wildflowers. This plant complex supplies food, nesting and brood rearing cover for ground dwelling birds.

Burning is an essential grassland management practice. However, be sure to make the time to prepare, have the right equipment, plenty of water and help, and pick the right weather conditions to conduct a safe and effective controlled burn. Fire is an outstanding tool for grassland management, and one that needs to be used carefully so it will be available for use for many years in the future.

A K-State publication, Prescribed Burning as a Management Practice, offers details of burning. More information about prescribed burning is available at the Lyon County K-State Research and Extension office, 618 Commercial Street, 341-3220, or on the web: http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/library/crpsl2/l815.pdf.